When I started as a nursing assistant on the McKnight Unit in Oxford in 1987, having just graduated with a degree in psychology and philosophy, I was totally new to psychiatry and had not encountered profound mental illness before. One of the most surprising aspects of the work was the weekly staff group, where we gathered for one hour, with an invited guest, the facilitator of the group, Isabel Menzies Lyth. I had no idea who this elegant elderly woman who arrived on the dot of one, and marched out on the dot of two, regardless of whether anyone was still speaking, was, or what her function in the group could be, but it gradually became evident that she had clear, strong views about what was going on organizationally and interpersonally in the ward, and had no compunction about making her observations public. She was clearly highly intelligent, but also showed respect,